Holder



May 16, 1967 -K. H. sEvERsoN HOUDER Filed May 24, 1965 FILE-2.

` INVENTOR. AzRM/r M SP1/5R50 Maw/#M1 United States Patent O 3,319,369 HOLDER Kermit H. Severson, -1400 E. Wayzata Blvd., Wayzata, Minn. 55391 Filed May 24, 1965, Ser. No. 457,950 1 Claim. (Cl. 40-10) This invention relates generally to holders for retaining information cards and the like and more particularly to a holder having a long, thin card receiving cavity and a process and design which permits mol-ding of long, thin cavities.

There are currently available various card holders and the like used to retain removable card for the storing of information. One of such card holders is provided in the patent to Severson, 3,011,297, which issued Dec. 5, 1961. In lthe card holder described in the :above mentioned patent it was necessary to design aninsert card of a particular design such that the card would exert a holding for-ce upon the holder. The holder which is the object of this invention however provides a device which may fbe used with various'types of cards and articles and which will effectively hold the same Without requiring any specific design for the card.

This invention also contemplates a particular design for a card holder which permits manufacturing a holder having a long, thin cavity therein. Up until this time the process of providing a long, thin cavity usually yinvolved a process of laminating two surfaces at their edges with :a void therebetween. One diliculty in molding an article with such a cavity has -been the collapse of the sides of the object to close the void when the cavity forming core Iwas withdrawn from between the sides of the article. The holder which is the result of this invention permits this long draft cavity without such, what may be termed, cavity collapse. v

It is therefore an object yof applicants invention to provide a design whereby cavities substantially deep or long and of thin cross section may be molded in articles.

It is a object of this invention to provide a card holder or the like wherein a long, thin card holding cavity may be provided and which is so designed to permit the molding of such a cavity through injection molding processes or the like.

It is :a further object of applicants invention to provide a card holder or the like wherein the holder is designed to provide a clamping action against the surfaces of the card such that material which may be written on the card is held in closely spaced relation to the sides of the cavity such that if the cavity is transparent there will be no disrtortion of the written material on the card.

It is a further object of applicants invention to provide a card holder or the like having at least one moveable, resilient side such that one dimension of the cavity may #be expanded to permit cards of various thickness to be inserted therein and which will clamp cards of various thickness tightly therein.

These and other objects Iand advantages of my invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views, and in lwhich:

FIG. 1 is a front view of :a holder embodying the concepts of applicants invention;

FIG. 2 is an end View of the holder;

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the holder;

FIG. 4 is a horizontal section taken substantially along line 4-4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a vertical section taken substantially :along line 5-5 of FIG. 1.

In accordance with the accompanying drawings the holder generally designated includes a rear panel 11 3,319,369 Patented May 16, 1967 ICS yand a front panel 12 which panels are integrally molded together at their lowermost ends 11a-12a thereof to provide a bottom 13.

As seen in the front and rear views of FIGS. 1 and 3 the holder 10 in the form shown provides a substantially rectangular cavity 14 with the rear boundary of the cavity 14 formed -by rear panel 11 and the front boundary formed by front panel 12. It should likewise be noted that the uppermost edge 12b of the front panel 12 does not extend to the :same height as rear panel 11 such that the upper portion 11b of the rear panel 11 may be used for an advertising space or the like and such that a card or an article inserted in-to cavity 14 may provide an extending grasping portion which portion is supported by the upper portion 11b of panel 11.

Arranged on the respective ends 12C-12d of front panel 12 are a pair of `side members 15-16 which -are joined to the front panel 12 and to bottom portion 13 and extend rearwardly from the front panel 12 to provide the ends of cavity 14 but which .sides 15-16 are not connected to the rear panel 11.

As Ibest seen in FIGS. 3 .and 5 a pair of slots 17-18 are respectively provided between the ends 11C-11d of rear panel 11 and the side elements 154.6. These slots 17-18 extend upwardly from bottom 13 to the upper edge 12b of the front panel 12. The structure as now provided therefore includes a cavity substantially surrounded on four sides, three of lwhich sides are of unitary construction with the other side being joined to the other sides solely through the bottom 13 connecting portion therebetween. Obviously then this container could be expanded in at least one dimension due to the slots 17-18 as illustrated by the dotted line position of the rear panel 11 as shown in FIG. 2.

As best illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 the cavity 14 though being substantially rectangular is dened to be of slightly V-shaped configuration with respect to its ends 15-16 in that they diverge upwardly from the bottom 13 of the cavity 14 and likewise as will be further explained hereinafter, there is a slight V-shaped divergence between the rear 11 and front panels 12.

Cavity 14 is of substantially thin cross sectional dimension between the rear panel 11 and front panel 12 and in order to provide this long thin cavity a manufacturing technique and holder design has been :arrived at las follows. Slots 17-18 permit a core to be received into a mold cavity which core is slightly wider than the desired cross section of the desired cavity 14 such that when the mold is opened and the core is withdrawn from cavity 14 the front section including front panel 12 .and ends 15-16 will drift back to a position wherein the sides 15a-16a of the ends 15-16 are in substantially planar alignment with the rear surface of the back panel 11.

It has been found that if the slots 17-18 are not provided it would be necessary to mold the holder with a core of exact .size with respect to the desired cavity and to permit the holder to completely cool -before removing the core of the mold from the cavity 14. In an automated process of course this cooling would be extremely time consuming and an object molded in such a manner would not possess the clamping effect against :an insert without distortion that is provided in with the design as described herein. In other words, for a transparent holder, using FIG. 4 as an illustration, if the holder were solid about its four sides the rear panel 11 and front panel 12 would bow outwardly if .a card of slightly thicker cross section were inserted therein and this fbow would cause a visual distortion of written material on the card. With the split elements 17-18 illustrated in FIG. 4 the cavity 14 cross section is increased as illustrated in FIG. 2 to receive a slightly wider article and after insertion the panels 11-12 will be urged together while maintaining a substantially 3 parallel relationship therebetween. Thus an article therebetween will be held flatly between panels 11-12 and will be held along the entire surfaces thereof and due to the flatness and pressing action, distortion of material written on the card will be eliminated.

The device as further provided herein is a four sided holder and though there are certain spring actions available on other devices such as money clips the four sided holding effect is not attained in such clips.

This split construction as provided herein permits core removal even thou-gh the article is molded of substantially thin cross section material while providing a cavity having a thin cross section to receive rarticles of substantially thin cross section. A minimal draft is required for such a core due to the ability to mold while the panels 11-12 are spread and due to the fact that the rear and front panels lll-l2 will tend to drift back into proper relation after the core has been removed such that the rear 11 :and front 12 panels of the cooled product are substantially parallel with only a minimal divergence over their depth.

The 'minimal -divergence effect between the rear and front panels 11-12 of course provides greater frictional Contact on the surfaces of the article inserted therein such that the article will tbe held securely therein even though the holder should be inverted.

As `should -be obvious, although the length of the cavity of the holder shown herein is substantially greater than the depth of the cavity this same procedure and split side design Would permit a cavity to be molded wherein the depth is substantially `greater than the length. For example, the article illustrated herein could be molded such that the entrance to the cavity 14 could be located at one of the ends 15-16. The size of the cavity being molded is immaterial and :applicant has found that it is possible to mold substantially deep, thin cavities in material of thin lcross section without requiring any great degree of 'draft for the sides of the cavity.

The resiliency of the -material combined with the speciiication slot design appreciably aids in this type of molding as the holder after removal from the mold tends to drift and will drift in this case inwardly such that the rear panel l1 and front panel 12 are slightly closer than they were during the actual molding process. The final position of course is as indicated in FIG. 4 where the sides 15a-16a of the ends 15-16 are in co-planar relation with the rear surface of rear panel 11.

It should be obvious ithat applicant has provided a new and unique holder structure which permits and provides a flat clamping eiect to an article inserted therein to securely hold the article on all four sides therein.

It should likewise be obvious that applicant has provided a new and unique design for articles which require long, thin cavities which permits the cavity to be molded with a minimum amount of draft.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangements and proportion of parts Without departing from the scope of my invention, which generally stated consists in the matter set forth in the appended claim.

What I claim is:

A card holder or the like including:

(a) a rst panel having a general T-shape construction;

(b) :a second panel substantially equal in length to the width of the upst-anding :leg of said T-sh'aped member and of a width to provide a relatively broad protective surface for a card inserted therein;

(c) means connecting one longitudinal side of said second panel to the lowermost end of said leg normally holding said panels in .substantially parallel relation;

(d) said connecting means providing a bottom to the area dened between said panels and permitting said panels to Ibe spread into angularly open position;

(e) a pair of end members on the respective ends of said second panel and extending toward said first pane-l; `and (f) the extending ends of said end members bein-g free standing from said rst panel and arranged to move within the open area adjacent the leg of said T- shaped rst panel and below the cross-bar portion thereof when said panels are spread into open position; said extending ends terminating in generally planar relation with said first panel when the holder is in normal position.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,645,640 10/1927 Aquila 40-l6 3,209,757 lO/ 1965 Littler.

FOREIGN PATENTS 1,168,045 8/1958 France.

EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner.

W. J. CONTRERAS, Assistant Examiner. 

